On a typical night on campus, one can expect to find students studying, attending sporting events or spending time with friends. It isn’t often students get the chance to hear from an Oscar award winning actor.
Hundreds of students filled University Auditorium Tuesday night to watch Ke Huy Quan discuss his career journey and answer student questions. The event was hosted by the ACCENT Speakers Bureau under UF Student Government.
Before Quan took the stage, students began taking their seats, but the excited hum broke into an immediate silence 7 p.m. when Garrett Schreiber, the president of ACCENT Speakers Bureau, took the stage and welcomed audience members. As soon as Quan walked on stage and greeted the crowd with a gator chomp, the crowd erupted.
The night began as UF journalism department chair Ted Spiker, interviewed Quan. The interview was followed by a session of student-submitted questions, which ranged from topics like opinions on everything bagels to Asian representation.
In March of 2023, Quan stole the hearts of many fans and viewers after his teary-eyed Oscar acceptance speech went viral. Spiker began by asking Quan about the night he won the Oscar for best supporting actor for his performance in “Everything Everywhere All At Once.”
“Never in my life did I imagine that moment coming true,” Quan said. “Even though I fantasized for many, many years.”
Quan’s presence had an uplifting tone, including moments of introspection from the actor.
Quan, who was born in Vietnam but identifies as Chinese, spent time in a refugee camp before moving to the United States. The actor said this caused him to face negative stereotypes and struggle with his identity growing up.
“I never felt I belonged anywhere,” he said. “I felt rootless. It wasn’t really until recently that I was able to see myself through other people’s eyes.”
Quan, who had not acted in over 20 years before scoring his Oscar-winning role, said he was called back to acting after seeing the positive responses to “Crazy Rich Asians,” which features an all-Asian cast.
“I was like, ‘Wow, this was the movie that I wanted to see for a long time, and this was the response that I wanted to see,’” he said. “It made me realize that perhaps time has changed.”
According to UF Institutional Planning and Research, the Asian population at UF makes up 9.64% of the student body, while the white population makes up nearly 49%.
Before the show, Shota Konno, a 21-year-old UF environmental engineering senior, submitted an online question for Quan about the underrepresentation of Asian American students.
“How do students have hope when they don’t feel represented on campus?” Konno asked in the online forum.
As Spiker announced the question in front of the audience, there was a moment of silence as Quan sat thinking.
“I love that question by the way,” Quan responded. “Who asked that question?”
Sitting about a dozen rows back to the right side of the stage was Konno. After seeing Konno’s raised hand, Quan told him to direct message him for a better answer.
Konno said he initially felt sorry for putting Quan on the spot but felt excited and prideful to have his question be called a good one.
“When he [Quan] called on me, I reacted with a timidly raised hand, but I could not contain my excitement and pride that he had called my question a good one,” he said.
Konno said the Center for Inclusion and Multicultural Engagement’s abrupt closure this summer and the termination of first-year arrival programs left him feeling sad, angry and confused.
“Quan’s performance in ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ gave me and countless others hope that we could overcome our struggles,” Konno said.
CIME was initially forced to close its doors after the state's elimination of all state-funded DEI programs in order to comply with Senate Bill 266. Konno said UF’s abrupt removal of CIME, which provided safe spaces, resources and cultural connection, opposed UF’s core value of inclusion and inspired his question for Quan.
“It also made me realize that Asians and Asian Americans were finally getting the representation on the big screen that we deserve,” he said. “Given these events, I felt compelled to ask Quan how we, as minority students, can have hope when the campus that should support and represent us fails to uphold its values.”
For David Min, a 19-year-old aerospace engineering student, Konno’s question resonated as the night's favorite.
“That’s a really meaningful question because that really made him think, and I think he [Quan] can really come up with a good answer,” Min said. “I think it was way more exciting than what I expected.”
As the night continued with tears and laughter from the crowd, students left with a renewed sense of clarity and direction toward their own lives.
Kristina Nguyen, a 19-year-old health science major, said there was never a dull moment.
“Everything was really inspiring. I teared up a lot,” Nguyen said. “It was so supportive. Everyone was so sweet, so kind. Everyone just brought good energy.”
Contact Sabrina Castro at scastro@alligator.org. Follow her on X @sabs_wurld.
Sabrina Castro is a rising senior studying journalism at the University of Florida and a Summer 2024 reporter for The Avenue. In her free time you can find her scrolling TikTok or searching for hidden gems at local thrift stores.
